[Trailer clip of “Lift”]
Steven Melendez (interview): “The LIFT program is New York Theatre Ballet’s outreach program. It’s been around for just over 30 years. And through classical ballet training, we strive to improve the lives of young people, particularly young people who are living in homeless shelters in New York City or are otherwise home insecure in New York City. Because we believe that dance is something that should be accessible to everyone. But almost more importantly than that, dance can be used as a really fantastic youth development tool.”
[Trailer clip of “Lift”]
David Petersen (interview): “I was in a dog park. There was a New York Times photographer who had photographed the company and these kids in the program for years, and this was in 2010, and it came to me and he said, ‘Dave, I’ve got a great idea for a documentary.’ And I said, ‘Okay, what is it?’ And he told me and he said, ‘One of the kids had gone all over the world and become quite an international dancer.’ And, you know, that was the little hook that got into my gill, you know, and pulled me down into the water. And I said, ‘Okay, okay, where’s the money?’ ‘No money.’ ‘Okay, where’s the company?’ And he said, ‘Midtown.’ And I thought and I said, ‘Well, I have a camera. I have a student who could hold a microphone.’ And that began the 11 year odyssey.”
[Trailer clip of “Lift”]
David Petersen (interview): “So it wasn’t until five years after I started it that we finally got into only one shelter. The only shelter that we were able to get into, which happened to be the shelter that Steven lived for three years. And so that is where I said, okay, something begins here. I don’t know what. And then you, of course, saw you know, we won’t do any spoilers, but you saw what happened when he first got there. And I knew and Mary knew. And I think Steven kind of maybe sensed that, oh, this was the beginning of some kind of journey.”
[Film clip of “Lift”]
Steven Melendez (interview): “And, you know, in all of the years that I’ve been working with children, I found that they shouldn’t be underestimated. They you know, it’s just kind of obvious to say. But they’re little humans. You know, they have their own ambitions and their own dreams and hopes and wishes, and they have their own peculiarities. And the children that we’re working with through the LIFT program, you know, from these difficult backgrounds, from these transient home lives, are especially complicated figures. They’re mature beyond their years, principally because they’ve experienced much more in the short time that they’ve been on Earth than than others in their age bracket have. And so they tend to, they tend to have a really clear focus about the world around them.”
[Trailer clip of “Lift”]
David Petersen (interview): “At least one story. Sharia’s story. She does actually find public housing. It’s an astonishing scene because, you know, they don’t even have plates, you know, and they don’t have furniture and they have this little log that, you know, if you look at that wide shot, there’s a little log and they’ve got this, you know, red hot sauce that they’re using on the chicken. But I tell you, it’s the most joyful moment because she is just embracing the fact that she has a home. She’s looking out 26 storeys that she’s above the city and suddenly she’s like, so empowered this this young 10, 11-year-old girl. And, you know, suddenly she says, you know, ‘I’m so glad I made it.’ And I think, you know, there’s different degrees of what we consider home. But I think if you have more security, you know, that’s why we use that term ‘home and security.’ When you have that security, that is a home.”
[Trailer clip of “Lift”]
This script was provided by The Associated Press.